Thursday, January 23, 2014

NARS NARSissist Eye Palette

This was a biggie for me, guys. I was obsessing and obsessing over this palette. It's officially going to be out on February 2nd I believe, but it was available for a limited pre-sale run I guess you'd call it on the NARS site and the Nordstrom site. I missed both of those because they sold out before I could get them. People are saying it'll be available at Sephora, but there's no certainty on that. Believe me, I would rather have bought it there and got the points! But, once I decided I needed this, I used Google to find out every place that sells NARS in hopes of finding it elsewhere. And where did I find it? Lord & Taylor! I didn't even know they sold makeup as I've never been in there LOL. I saw a lot of mixed reviews on this one, which had me torn at first. Now that I have it I'm going to give you my opinion...

I was worried my palette was going to be broken because the way Lord & Taylor shipped it, it was just floating around inside a box with no bubblewrap or any type of padding. Luckily, NARS always puts a protective cardboard layer around their powder products, so it wasn't harmed!

I'll be the first to say I don't own a lot of NARS eyeshadows so I can't really compare these to many others. I fell in love with the thought of having 15 of their shades in one palette. All of these are either NARS singles or from duos (as noted by the #1 or #2 after their names). This palette is limited edition but I believe the NARSissist line is something they'll be continuing - maybe we'll see more palettes like this in the future.

The palette alone is just gorgeous to look at. I'm kind of mad at myself that I forgot to take my pictures BEFORE I played around with it, I always hate when I do that!! So please excuse the fact that the shadows have fingerprints in them!

The one thing I dislike is that the shade names aren't written anywhere on the palette, not even on the back. I'm thinking of making little stickers for the back of it with all the names. It's especially annoying when you're doing a YouTube tutorial and don't have the shade names handy to let everyone know what you're using!

Top Row: All About Eve #1, Madrague #2

Middle Row: Madrague #1, Nepal

Bottom Row: Bellissima #1, Lhasa

Top Row: Fez, Bali, Coconut Grove

Middle Row: Ashes to Ashes, Brousse #2, Mekong

Bottom Row: Bad Behaviour, Dorgon #2, Pandora #2

Now for close-ups!

All About Eve #1:

This is a yellowed beigey color.

Madrague #2:

This is described as a matte caramel. Very good as a transition color.

Fez:

This is a rich shimmery chocolate brown. Very soft!

Bali:

Matte dark brown.

Coconut Grove:

Deep brown. This one isn't described as a matte, but swatches quite matte. That glitter you see is fallout from the other shades!

All About Eve #1, Madrague #2, Fez, Bali, Coconut Grove

Madrague #1:

This is a mate cream. Perfect highlight shade.

Nepal:

Soft sheer rose. This one has a nice subtle shimmer to it.

Ashes to Ashes:

Shimmery violet-based brown.

Brousse #2:

Black violet - very dark purple shade!

Mekong:

Deep brown with gold shimmer. The shimmer is very fine and translates nicely to the eye!

Madrague #1, Nepal, Ashes to Ashes, Brousse #2, Mekong

Bellissima #1:

This one is more of a shimmer overcoat. It gives some off-white pigment on the finger, but when swatched it is just fine white-gold glitter.

Lhasa:

Lavender grey. Probably my favorite in the palette!

Bad Behaviour:

Deep pewter shade.

Dorgon #2:

Charcoal. This one is nice and soft - very dark but not quite black.

Pandora #2:

Matte black.

Bellissima #1, Lhasa, Bad Behaviour, Dorgon #2, Pandora #2

I am very happy with the pallete and love it. These swatches were all done on my arm without primer. To me, they perform pretty damn well. A few of the mattes like Bali and Coconut Grove need some working with and the Bellissima color is more of an inner corner highlight/topper shade, but the palette as a whole works really well together. With all the neutral/nude palettes out there right now, I think this is one of my favorites! If you missed it the first time around, you can do what I did and grab it from Lord & Taylor, or wait until the official February 2nd release date for the NARS site. As far as I know Nordstrom will be getting them back as well but they couldn't give me an exact date when I asked! Hope you guys enjoyed this review and remember to follow on Bloglovin' for more updates!